The design of cooperative multi-robot systems is a highly active research area in robotics. Two lines of research in particular have generated inter- est: the solution of large, weakly coupled MDPs, and the design and im- plementation of market architectures. We propose a new algorithm which joins together these two lines of research. For a class of coupled MDPs, our algorithm automatically designs a market architecture which causes a decentralized multi-robot system to converge to a consistent policy. We can show that this policy is the same as the one which would be produced by a particular centralized planning algorithm. We demonstrate the new algorithm on three simulation examples: multi-robot towing, multi-robot path planning with a limited fuel resource, and coordinating behaviors in a game of paint ball.

To date, very little work has investigated the benefits of repairable robots. Robots that can repair themselves and other robots in their team are intuitively a superior design. Intuition, however, is not an acceptable basis for spending millions of dollars in development. In this work, we quantify the gain in productivity of a team of repairable robots compared to a team without repair capabilities. We create a model using an extension of standard reliability theory. It allows the definition of a metric which is used to compare the two teams. The analysis yields insight into the design of repairable robot teams under a certain set of assumptions. The model also demonstrates scenarios where repair capabilities are not likely to be beneficial.

In the future, we propose that there will be largely self-sufficient robot colonies operating on distant planets and in harsh environments here on Earth. A highly desirable quality of such a colony would be the capability of the robots to repair each other. Towards the goal of autonomous repair, we design a robot that can replace the modules composing a similar robot. The final system is teleoperated and module removal/replacement is performed on a test bed. We discuss some of the design trade-offs for such a system and discuss some of the steps required in order to develop a self-sufficient robot colony.